[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Supreme Court today (Friday, July 26) issued notice to the Centre, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and states for implementation of its directions in 2018 to prevent mob lynching.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta issued the notice based on a petition filed by an anti corruption watchdog. 

In the July 17, 2018 jugdement, a three-judge Bench led by then CJI Dipak Misra had condemned the incidents of lynching and mob violence against Dalits and minority community members as “horrendous acts of mobocracy”, and asked Parliament to pass law establishing lynching as a separate offence with punishment. This special law, the court said, should be effective enough to instill a sense of fear in the perpetrators.

The court held that it was the obligation of the State to protect citizens and ensure that the “pluralistic social fabric” of the country holds against mob violence.

The court had said the growing numbness of the ordinary Indian to the frequent incidents of lynchings happening right before his eyes in a society based on rule of law is shocking. The government should see the judgment as a “clarion call” in a time of exigency and work towards strengthening the social order.

It was also the obligation of the Centre and the States to ensure that “nobody takes the law into his hands nor become a law into himself”, the court said. It also ordered that cases of lynching and mob violence shall be specifically tried by designated court/Fast Track Courts earmarked for that purpose in each district and that “upon conviction of the accused person(s), the trial court must ordinarily award maximum sentence as provided for various offences under the provisions of the IPC.”

It directed several preventive, remedial and punitive measures to deal with lynching and mob violence and directed state governments to prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme and file compliance reports within the next four weeks.

Also Read: Indian Embassy granted consular access to 18 Indian nationals by Iran

In the last hearing of the case, the court had classified lynchings as sheer “mob violence”. It had said compensation for victims should not be determined solely on the basis of their religion, caste, etc, but on the basis of the extent of injury caused as “anyone can be a victim” of such a crime.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post SC notice to NHRC, government on implementation of directions against mob lynching appeared first on APN News.